


We Could've Been Great Together

by kirari_amiya



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Maybe something more, Platonic Pining, Pre-Timeskip, blue lions students banter, description of golden deer students i guess, edelgard is mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 03:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20108206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirari_amiya/pseuds/kirari_amiya
Summary: Claude could only stare at that blank expression on their face. To him, this was simply so annoying— he couldn’t read what those eyes said. They were completely devoid of emotion. Trying to find out what they were thinking was like trying to predict the weather, there were a million different ways you could do it and only a handful would be correct.For the first time in his life, Claude von Riegan could not determine anything from reading someone’s eyes, and it was infuriating? What kind of person had such a dead expression? Not even a hint of boredom, sternness or nervousness was evident in Byleth’s eyes.Nevertheless, Claude stood still, beside Edelgard and Dimitri, with his unwavering grin. He wasn’t sure if he wanted this new professor to pick his house, the Golden Deer, but he figured… maybe a change of pace would be interesting for once. The daughter of the former Captain of the Knights of Seiros, whom everyone recently found out had been leading a band of mercenaries around Fodlan? He’d gladly welcome the change, but he wasn’t sure he wanted it. Or maybe, was he in denial? or was he conflicted?





	We Could've Been Great Together

**Author's Note:**

> hello my name is amamiya and i am Big Idiot for writing this instead of all of last week's homework  
i've just finished chapter 17? am on chapter 18 on blue lions and boy golly do i regret putting claude on hold.  
i am so sorry claude, i swear it! i am also Big Idiot for not finishing this, but you see, it's 2am and i must wake from my slumber at 7 o'clock. part of me wishes that i will be allowed to skip another day, but having bronchitis is a poor excuse.
> 
> SORRY IF ANYONE IS OOC. I'VE ONLY PLAYED BLUE LIONS SO FAR! (ps, i hereby adopt all the students from the blue lions <3)

Claude had always been the person who read others. Growing up in the alliance, it's something that he had to learn to do. The relationships between the ruling nobles in the Alliance already had a pretty rocky relationship long before he was born. He suspected the only reason that the Alliance was measly held together was because of their complete refusal to become a state of the Holy Kingdom or the Empire. After all, the enemies of your enemies are your ”friends”. It would have also been a disgrace to his ancestor,The first Duke of the von Riegan line who had led the Leicester Rebellion to split from the Holy Kingdom.

Still, he used this ability to get away with mostly anything he had wanted. He had been taught growing up that reading the atmosphere and swaying people with your sweet words is what usually got the job done. As it was in the Alliance, the faster everyone would comply, the easier it would be. When he was a child, he would draw parallels between the Knights of the Round Table and the Leicester Alliance, but as he grew older, he realised how taxing it really was on the current leader, his father.

To be honest, Claude was sort of a nobody before he was announced heir. He’d been diligently studying strategy, psychology and much to his delight, politics. Along the way, he’d apparently inherited the honey coated tongue that his grandmother had owned. He could sway others with his sweet words, coax them to do his bidding, and as Claude grew older and saw less of the world in black and white, he would choose the lesser of evils. Whatever gets the job done the easiest. It doesn’t matter how you achieve it.

*****

“We’ll let you pick first, professor,” Manuela had informed the new teacher. 

Claude could only stare at that blank expression on their face. To him, this was simply so annoying— he couldn’t read what those eyes said. They were completely devoid of emotion. Trying to find out what they were thinking was like trying to predict the weather, there were a million different ways you could do it and only a handful would be correct.

For the first time in his life, Claude von Riegan could not determine anything from reading someone’s eyes, and it was infuriating? What kind of person had such a dead expression? Not even a hint of boredom, happiness or nervousness was evident in Byleth’s eyes.

Nevertheless,Claude stood still, alongside Edelgard and Dimitri, with his unwavering grin. He wasn’t sure if he wanted this new professor to pick his house, the Golden Deer, but he figured… maybe a change of pace would be interesting for once. The daughter of the former Captain of the Knights of Seiros, whom everyone recently found out had been leading a band of mercenaries around Fodlan? He’d gladly welcome the change, but he wasn’t sure he wanted it. Or maybe, was he in denial?

But it wouldn’t be beyond him to realise how advantageous having this professor would be. A glimpse into the child of the man who was known as Fodlan’s greatest knight- Claude wasn’t privy to those tales, he’d been doing a lot of research after all. If this woman truly grew up in a mercenary environment, trained by the greatest knight the monastery had ever known, then there was no doubt their daughter would be an absolute beast on the battlefield. Maybe her wanted something more from them, he wanted to know how to fight with a bow, as much as he loved archery, other weapons piqued his interest and maybe the mercenary style would help him and learning more about the disappearance of Jeralt two decades ago--

“Blue Lions.”

Byleth stepped towards Dimitri.

“I choose the Blue Lions.”

*****

After that day, Claude was almost offended that their new professor had chosen Dimitri over him. Granted, he was aware of how chivalrous and gentle the Prince of Faerghus was. Still, he wasn’t blind to Felix’s remarks of calling him ‘fake’ and ‘boar prince’, he was sure that the other members of the Blue Lions would reprimand him a lot for it, but they strangely didn’t. He’d found out that Dedue and Dimitri themselves were the sole survivors of the Duscur Tragedy, but the fact that Dedue never denied these claims and only got slightly offended at times was very fishy to say the least.

Claude found himself keeping more tabs on the Blue Lions. Byleth was such a mystery, and Dimitri truly left him with a bad taste in his mouth (not that he would say anything about it to his face). That

Lady Rhea had taken a strange affinity to the professor herself, especially with the recommendation of Alois, the knight. He’d probably meant it in a joking or semi-serious tone to thank Byleth for the safety of all three house leaders in that field trip gone awry but, he’d overhead that even Seteth was bothered by this. Claude wasn’t the only one.

Claude schemed of a plan to more discreetly gain intel from this professor. So he opted for something simple, sitting on the edge of the table, closest to the Blue Lions so he could eavesdrop on them and study their facial expressions. He watched as they opened their journal, take out a piece of paper, presumably a list and hand it to the kitchen staff. The kitchen staff, looking thankful accepted the paper before Byleth left.

“Oh, so that’s why you asked us what foods we liked during homeroom!” Annette chirped, crossing their hands happily. “You wanted to tell the kitchen staff would foods we preferred instead of us having to go line up in groups.”

“That’s a good idea, professor!” Mercedes added, “Not everyone arrives at the same time, so the food gets delayed when people arrive one by one. But you asked for the options they were serving this Sunday and asked us what we liked most.”

“You really saved them a lot of trouble,” Ingrid stared at Sylain’s annoyingly vacant seat. 

Ashe chuckled as he saw Felix enter the dining hall with Sylvain’s ear in hand. Sylvain was laughing with a pained smile. That must not be comfortable.

“Eat, Sylvain, and stop being such a skirt-chaser. You asked me if I wanted to head to the dining hall with you, and the on time I agreed and went with you-- you kept on stopping and hit on no less than four women!” Felix grumbled, his eyebrows creasing in utter distaste.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Words mean nothing if you never carry out your actions!” Felix snapped.

Dimitri could only chuckle.

Claude couldn’t help but mentally laugh at the shenanigans from the Blue Lions. Out of the three houses, Dimitri, Sylvain, Felix and Ingrid were the biggest group of childhood friends. No doubt they had been through thick and thin, but they were also rather casual and close with each other compared to the Golden Deer or the Black Eagles.

He almost wished his house was that functional. Sure, they were entertaining in their own way and everyone had their quirks, but no one was truly unified. There were friendships here and there, between Lysithea and Marieanne, but everyone was sort of annoyed at how Lorenz was being an oblivious snob who had good intentions, but Hilda’s pleading got annoying every once in a while, and Hilda did not always have good intentions. Then there was professor Hanneman who was a bit too much into crests to invest themselves in their students’ lives. Sure, he would teach them, train them, go out on missions with them-- but unless you behaved badly and needed disciplinary action, failed a test or personally asked to talk to him about something after class, he was just gone in an instant. Almost unreachable when he dropped everything when he engrossed himself in crest research and fighting with Manuela.

Claude kept listening in to the conversation, picking more and more at his food, trying to focus on something beneath all the chatter and behind all those thoughts that he had. But he heard nothing about Byleth. He learned nothing about Byleth.

“Claude, are you alright?” Leonie tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his concentration. “You’ve been picking at your food for the last five minutes.”

The leader of the Golden Deer looked down at his hands, holding the silver utensils and at his plate of half-eaten food. Ah, he’d really been caught this time. It’s not like he couldn’t make a simple excuse though.

“I’m alright, Leonie,” Claude assured her by gathering a spoonful of game and putting it in his mouth. “I was just thinking about the upcoming test next week.”

“Oh yeah! We have a test next week, I’d better study harder. I have a debt to repay!” She quickly turned to the other person sitting next to her, who was Raphael, and started having a discussion with him. Once again, he’d also managed to change the topic subject to something that Leonie would rather discuss with someone else, stepping out of the spotlight.

Byleth…

He quickly glanced towards her direction, trying to get a glimpse at her pale violet eyes and she caught him.

She caught him staring into her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> this is in 2 parts, sorry, i wanted to get this out, but at the same time i didn't want to stay up until 3am writing.  
i have exams coming up too, so i will probably die. damn, i should've gotten this game AFTER exams in august. not now. oh boi, this will be a wild, wild adventure.


End file.
